1. Field of the Invention
This invention is concerned with the detection of oil in water. More specifically, it deals with a method and apparatus for continuously monitoring the presence of oil in water
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofor it has been known that there are numerous procedures for measuring and/or detecting the presence of oil in water. However, such procedures had various drawbacks, depending in part upon the type of procedure and/or apparatus that was employed. For example, if a method involved use of a solvent, it might extract materials other than oil from the water and therefore such other materials would be defined as oil in an erroneous manner.
Furthermore, even standard procedures for determining oil content in water had various difficulties and drawbacks, among which was the lack of sensitively for determining the presence of oil in low parts per million range. In addition, such procedures have been laboratory types of operation, and as such they are time consuming and non-continuous in the measurements made.
Consequently, it is an object of this invention to provide a method and apparatus for continuously monitoring the presence of oil in water which particularly deals with a procedure involving infrared absorption measurement.